Description

This deck achieves card advantage through looting effects and recurrent creatures, then swarms the opponent quickly. It happens to have similarities with the Legacy deck 'Zombie bombardment' or 'Zombardment'

If you are looking for a deck with an exellent winrate against death shadow aggro and good winrates against combo and control decks then this might be for you. The harder matchups are Affinity, Tron and Eldrazi decks as well as any meta with heavy Graveyard hate.

I'd love to get more feedback and advice on the Deck and the Sideboard!

Card discussion

'Cryptbreaker' both gets the zombie count up and gets bloodghast into the GY. He is great in grindy matchups.

The deck often loots most of the lands and the hand is rarely empty. Therefore it wants as few three drops as possible: cutting 'Kolaghans command'. Liliana of the Veil is currently holding the only spot there. ('Lingering souls' is often a two drop.)

The deck needs to be as aggressive as possible for all the creatures in the deck that can't block. Therefore I would really like more bodies in the one mana Slot but I am not sure about 'Bloodsoaked Champion' as he is strictly worse than 'Gravecrawler'

'Diregraf Ghoul' unfortunately gets into play tapped which is anti synergetical with 'Cryptbreaker' and 'Smuggler's Copter'

Due to input from reader LeaPlath I have now recently replaced one 'Cryptbreaker' with a Mutavault as an additional Land and have never looked back.

Due to input from reader 'Lagotripha' I am thinking about replacing some Tidehollow Sculler with Rotting Rats because the meta is so spot removal heavy. The Rats serve as discard outlets, come back from the GY and still keep the Zombie count up. They might help with the overall consistency of the deck.

Results:

Competitive modern league: current Winrate is above 50%, not bad considering there is still a learning curve.

Sideboard:

Gravediggers Cage was almost nonexistant for a while, now its a bit more prevalent again

vs RDW The matchup feels favourable with 4 Collective brutalities and a Leyline of Sanctity

+2 Collective Brutality

+1 Leyline of Sanctity

+1 Fatal push

-2 Dark Confidant

-1 Thoughtseize

-1 Liliana of the Veil

vs Tron: I think this matchup is disfavourable as the deck is not quick enough to consistently evade Ugin

+3 Stony Silence

+2 Fulminator Mage

-2 Smuggler's Copter (gets shut down by Stony Silence)

-2 Cryptbreaker

-1 Lingering Souls

Storm, vs Ad Nauseam: I think those are good matchups: Tidehollow rules

+2 Collective brutality

+1 Leyline of Sanctity

+1 Leyline of the Void (Storm)

+2 Nihil Spellbomb (Storm)

+3 stony silence (nauseam)

-2 Path to Exile

-2 Fatal Push

-3 Lingering souls (storm)

-2 smugglers copter (nauseam)

vs Jundt: Liliana of the Veil? I couldn't care less

+1 Big game hunter

+1 Fatal push

+1 Leyline of Sanctity

-2 Tidehollow Sculler

-1 Collective Brutality

vs Death Shadow: I have a fantastic win rate here. (currently 8-0!)By the time they are below 10 life I usually have enough board presence and can - sometimes backed with a bolt - finish the job in one or two turns. The Lingering Souls can jump block the Shadows forever. Their only real chance at winning is 'Temur battle rage'.

+1 Leyline of Sanctity

+1 Leyline of the Void

+1 Big game hunter

+1 Fatal push

+2 Nihil spellbomb

-3 Tidehollow Sculler

-2 Collective Brutality

-1 Gravecrawler

vs Abzan: I would think this is probably an even matchup

+1 Leyline of Sanctity

+1 Zealous Persecution

+1 Big game hunter

+1 Leyline of the Void

-1 Liliana of the Veil

-3 Tidehollow Sculler

vs Affinity: I think this is a tough matchup, after sideboard it gets much better though

Updates

I really would suggest a manland in the vein of Mutavault. It has synergy with Cryptbreaker and Gravecrawler, as well as being a creature who can keep crewing copter for 2 who doesn't die to sorcery speed removal or decay.

March 10, 2017
1:34 a.m.

Interesting setup. K-command will help with the affinity matchup, but I'm trying to figure out where it'd fit. Personally, I'd swap the scullers for Rotting Rats, freeing up some space with the Faithless Looting self discard for more hand disruption- likely 3 rotting rats, a Nezumi Bone-Reader 2 k-command and 2 thoughtseize in the looting/sculler slots. It might not suit your meta, as you've already cut the higher cost card slots.Eidolon of the Great Revel/Nether Traitor/Shared Animosity/Topplegeist might work more solidly if you're planning on rushing your opponent down before they can react to all the disruption, but its super gimicky and loses out to exile effects.All told, it looks like a really solid attempt at that low cost Dark Confidant/discard aggro archetype, and I can't really suggest any flat upgrades. It feels like it could abuse sacrifice effects, even just to dodge path, but I'm having trouble finding a slot for Greater Gargadon. Really nice setup +1 Keep tinkering.

March 24, 2017
5:53 a.m.

thanks lagotripha for the Input! You might have a point with the 'Rotting Rats' - even though it's not a particularly good card as such - there is probably too much synergy to ignore. Especially since I have recently reduced both the 'Cryptbreaker' and the 'Smugglers Copter' Count, there are now games when bloodghast Needs to get casted. So more discard outlets are very much wanted.

Something I have learned though: with 4 Bloodghasts and 4 Gravecrawler you need to be as aggressive as possible. Thats why I dont think Nezumi Bone-Reader fits in there, he is not a Zombie and he doesnt help to evade Path to Exile. Early on I have also tested 'Nether Traitor' but he seems overall just too slow. Shared Animosity is a very interesting card, I havent considered it but I might test it.

What do you think of the Sideboard?

March 24, 2017
9:19 a.m.

April 21, 2017
2:54 a.m.

Thanks Stephen, I have been brewing with 'Prized Amalgam' back and forth. The fact that he can't be cast with this manabase IS a problem even with that many discard outlets. A second 'Liliana' might indeed be worth an inclusion- probably over a 'Tidehollow Sculler'?

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